Recently, owing to miniaturization of global positioning system (GPS) receivers, functions of providing a position information service, in which, on the basis of detected longitude and latitude information associated with a current position, position relations between the current position and individual destinations are indicated and/or displayed, have been progressively incorporated in terminal devices, such as mobile telephones and mobile wireless information terminals.
Furthermore, owing to compact geomagnetic sensors which have been developed, it is possible to utilize information indicating an orientation which a user's terminal device, including the geomagnetic sensor incorporated therein, is facing. In addition, with respect to so-called third generation mobile telephones and the like, even though the GPS is not utilized, it is possible for base stations equipped over a wireless network to detect current positions of the mobile telephones, and the detected current position information, that is, position registration information, has been also actively utilized.
With respect to existing technologies which enable realization of provision of position information services achieved by combining a function of acquiring current position information, which can be achieved by using the GPS, and a function of acquiring orientation information, which can be achieved by using a geomagnetic sensor, the following technologies are well known to those skilled in the art.
With respect to a product resulting from implementation of a first existing technology, portable navigation devices are well known to those skilled in the art, in each of which a GPS receiver and a geomagnetic sensor are included, and on the basis of input position information related to a destination, a position relative to the destination and an orientation regarding the destination are calculated by associating the position and the orientation with a reference orientation, and the calculation result is displayed, and is also used for navigation.
With respect to a product resulting from implementation of a second existing technology, clocks are well known to those skilled in the art, in each of which a GPS receiver and an electronic compass configured to include a geomagnetic sensor or the like are included, and on the basis of input position information related to a destination, an orientation relative to the destination is displayed.
With respect to a product resulting from implementation of a third existing technology, mobile terminals are well known to those skilled in the art, in each of which either a circuit configured to acquire position registration information related to a current position of a target mobile terminal from a network, or a GPS receiver, further, a geomagnetic sensor, and a circuit configured to acquire position registration information related to a called party's mobile terminal from the network are incorporated, and a direction and a distance from a current position to the called party's mobile terminal are calculated and displayed.
With respect to a product resulting from implementation of a fourth existing technology, mobile terminal devices are well known to those skilled in the art, in each of which a GPS receiver and a geomagnetic sensor are included, further, a function of setting a destination on the basis of information obtained by using a guidance service for e-mail addresses or addresses and telephone numbers, or performing a Web search, or alternatively, a function of inputting longitude and latitude information is included, and a distance and a direction from a current position to a destination are displayed.
All the above-described technologies are ones which enable displaying or indicating not only a distance and a position relation relative to a destination, but also an orientation regarding a destination relative to a reference orientation at the current position.
In association with the above-described technologies, the following patent documents are disclosed.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 05-40161, PCT Japanese Translation Patent Publication No. 2000-512014 (corresponding to International Publication Pamphlet No. WO97/48025), Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-40427 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-333421 are examples of related art.
However, the above-described first and second existing technologies prompt a user to explicitly input position information related to destinations from a terminal device thereof or the like, and further, do not disclose any technologies to realize a method in which acquisition of position information related to destinations is performed on the basis of, for example, names or telephone numbers of the destinations. Therefore, with respect to the above-described first and second existing technologies, there has been a disadvantage in that, in the case where the user knows the position information related to the destinations, the user utilize such a position information service that is provided by using the above-described first and second existing technologies.
Further, a target for application of a position information providing service realized by using the above-described third technology is limited to position information related to the called party's mobile terminal device. Therefore, there has been a disadvantage in that it is difficult to respond to requests from users who desire to know position information related to various destinations.
Moreover, for the above-described fourth technology, it is just stated vaguely that setting of destinations is performed on the basis of guidance services for e-mail addresses, addresses and telephone numbers, or Web searching. Therefore, there has been a disadvantage in that, for example, in the case where implementation of a function of setting position information related to destinations on the basis of names or telephone numbers of the destinations, or the like, is desired, it is difficult to specifically realize an apparatus or a method including a function to acquire position information specified by the setting.
Furthermore, there has been a disadvantage in that, even if the above-described first to fourth existing technologies are combined, it is difficult to achieve technologies for acquisition of position information related to destinations in accordance with information for searching, which users specify on the basis of information obtained by using various methods with the aid of recent sophisticated mobile terminals. Moreover, there has been a disadvantage in that, it is also difficult to achieve technologies for searching for position information related to destinations, which allow position information related a current position to be actively utilized, the position information being acquired by using the GPS or the like.
In any of the above-described existing technologies, there has been a disadvantage in that, it is difficult to effectively realize a series of display switchings, which are performed so that, in a format which allows users to easily understand directions towards destinations and distances to the destinations relative to a current position, a list of destinations is displayed on the basis of input searching information, and further, the details of a specific destination selected from among the listed destinations are displayed.